INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel.New Delhi: The government will not cut excise duty on petrol and
diesel to cushion spiralling prices, which touched fresh highs Tuesday, as it has limited fiscal space available to take any dent in revenue
collections, a top official said
With imports becoming costlier because of a free-fall in rupee against the US dollar, the government believes the current account deficit
will overshoot the target and it cannot "disturb fiscal maths by cutting excise duty on petrol and diesel," said the official, who wished
excise duty to cushion the spike
state-owned fuel retailers, petrol price was Tuesday hiked by 16 paise per litre and diesel by 19 paise.Fuel rates have been on fire since
mid-August, rising almost every day due to a combination of a drop in rupee value and rise in crude oil rates.Petrol price has risen by Rs
2.17 per litre since August 16 while diesel rates have climbed by Rs 2.62 - the biggest increase in rates witnessed in any fortnight since
the launch of daily price revision in mid-June last year.Commenting on the relentless price rise, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram
said: "Relentless rise in prices of petrol and diesel is not inevitable
Because the price is built up by excessive taxes on petrol and diesel
If taxes are cut, prices will decline significantly.""We already know that there will be a hit on current account
fiscal deficit means expenditure higher than income, current account deficit (CAD) is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign
said there are risks of India breaching the 3.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current financial year ending March 31, 2019, as
will remain significantly narrower than five years ago, it had said.The government has budgeted fiscal deficit to be at 3.3 per cent of
expects the current account deficit to widen to 2.5 per cent of GDP in the fiscal year ending March 2019, from 1.5 per cent in fiscal
The Centre currently levies a total of Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel
On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) - the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 per cent sales tax is charged
Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 per cent on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26 per cent on diesel
11.77 a litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global
more than doubling in last four years - from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18
States saw their VAT revenue from petro goods rise from Rs 1,37,157 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,84,091 crore in 2017-18.A litre of petrol in
capitals due to lower sales tax or VAT
story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
